Francis Mason was an English-born naturalist and missionary active in Burma. Born in York, as a teenager he worked alongside his father as a shoemaker before emigrating to the United States in 1818. Mason emulated his Baptist father and grandfather in becoming a preacher in 1827, and in 1830 left America for Burma, sent by the American Baptist Missionary Union to work among the Karen people. He trained native preachers at Dawei (Tavoy) and translated the Bible into local dialects.

In his spare time Mason studied the natural history of the region and collected plants in Dawei and Mawlamyaing (Moulmein). In 1850 he published The natural productions of Burmah, or, Notes on the fauna, flora, and minerals of the Tenasserim provinces and the Burman empire, which was later revised and extended by William Theobald. He also compiled a Flora burmanica (1851) and completed an autobiography, The Story of a Working Man's Life, with Sketches of Travel in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Mason died in Rangoon.

Sources:
D.J. Mabberley, 1985, "William Theobald (1829-1908): Unwitting Reformer of Botanical Nomenclature?", Taxon, 34(1): 152-156
R.R. Stewart, 1982, "Missionaries and Clergymen as Botanists in India and Pakistan", Taxon, 31(1): 63.